When three Stars and Stripes journalists sued the Pentagon on August 27 to stop their dismissals, the fight over alleged retaliation exposed a deeper contradiction at the center of the drama. It is a long-running illusion, one successive administrations have sustained for decades. The newspaper’s editorial freedom, and its journalism, was genuine and important.
But the firewall that supposedly shielded Stars and Stripes wasn’t. How independent can a newsroom be when the institution it covers controls the machinery around it? Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has supplied one clear answer.
Whether it’s the decisive one now rests with a federal judge. Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte received proposed separation notices on August 21 charging insubordination and other violations. The terminations were set to take effect five business days later.
They allege the Pentagon retaliated against protected speech defending the newspaper’s independence. Specifically, against reporting on conditions endured by some 5,000 sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a carrier at sea for more than 250 consecutive days as part of the war with Iran. The complaint names Hegseth, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and Parnell’s principal deputy, Andrew Brey, in their official capacities.
Brey ordered Lederer to hand the notices to Slavin and Korte. Lederer refused and chose to retire instead. The Pentagon has declined to comment on the allegations.
A Pentagon instruction that took effect on August 21, the same day as the notices, declares that Stars and Stripes will operate independently of the military chain of command and remain "free from censorship or propaganda." The same document assigns his office policy and broad operational guidance over the newspaper, approval of the publisher and ombudsman hiring selections, and oversight of the paper’s compliance with its authorized functions. The publisher reports to the director of the Pentagon body that houses Stripes. It also cancels the 1993 directive that governed the paper for three decades.
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